Ivy League Announces Shaken Up 2018 Football Schedule That Prioritizes Rivalries in Final Weekend

Following a wild season that, by week eight kickoff, saw the chance of a seven-way tie for first place, Ivy League football announced Tuesday that it is shifting around the schedule starting in 2018 by ending the season with regional rivalry matchups.

Penn-Princeton, Brown-Dartmouth, Cornell-Columbia and The Game between Yale and Harvard will now cap off the 2018 season and beyond, as the league hopes it can enhance the excitement of the final weekend.

“The storied-tradition of Ivy League regional rivalries has always been of great importance to our alumni, fans and teams,” Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris said in a press release. “We look forward to a fantastic final weekend of the Ivy football season, with these rivalry games adding to the excitement of the Ivy League title race.”

The season finale will not be the only change to Cornell’s 2018 season, however. The Red will once again open its campaign at Delaware but will then return home, hoping to avenge last year’s thrashing on the road to eventual-champion Yale.

Cornell will remain in Ithaca to take on Sacred Heart after a one-year hiatus in the matchup, followed by a rematch with Harvard over the fall break from classes.

A mid-season three-game road trip kicks off at Colgate, where the Red will return for the first time since its last-second win over the Raiders in 2016. Ivy play resumes at Brown and Princeton the following two weekends, with Penn and Dartmouth in November rounding out the home slate of games.

While The Game will be going on in Fenway Park, Cornell’s rivalry conclusion to the season will be on the road to New York City to take on Columbia.

Below is Cornell’s schedule for 2018, though the kickoff times have not been finalized. The entire Ivy League schedule can be found here.

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Zachary Silver is a senior writer in The Sun's sports department. He was the sports editor on the 135th Editorial Board and an assistant sports editor on the 134th before serving as a senior editor on the 136th. He is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and can be reached at zsilver@cornellsun.com, or follow him on Twitter @zachsilver.

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